Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, September 28, 1863

Camp White, West Virginia, September 28, 1863.

Dear Mother: — . . . Your letter from Delaware dated the 20th came this morning. I am glad you are safely back to Mrs. Wasson's pleasant home. I always feel uneasy when you have a journey before you.

Lucy left Webb and Ruddy with their Grandmother Webb at Mrs. Boggs'. Birch went with Uncle back to Fremont.

I am in no hurry about having my boys learn to write. I would much prefer they would lay up a stock of health by knocking around in the country than to hear that they were the best scholars of their age in Ohio.

I am glad to see that Laura's husband has distinguished himself in the recent great battle and has escaped without injury. His good fortune will be gratifying intelligence at Columbus.

Lucy is in camp with me. Mrs. Comly (late Libby Smith) and Dr. Barrett's wife are also in camp and make a pleasant little circle. She sends love. — Remember me to Sophia and Mrs. Wasson.

Affectionately, your son,

R.

Mrs. Sophia Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 437

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, August 23, 1863

Camp White, August 23, i863.

Dearest:  — Very glad to get your good letter from Columbus. I wish I could travel with you a few weeks now. Everybody praises our nephew and his wife. That last phrase means Laura.

You must tell me more particulars about Fanny and Minnie, or do they call her Emily now? If she is growing into a young lady as fast as I suppose she is, Emily is the best name.

I got a letter from Mother at the same time with yours. She is very contented and happy at Fremont. You will be together soon. I hope you will manage to have the boys like her. She is not likely to have much time to enjoy with her grandsons, and I hope the most will be made of it.

I see that our beautiful little lost one is in your thoughts a great deal — much more perhaps than you thought he would be when you left here. If it does not sadden your life, as I think it does not, I am not sorry that you remember him so often. He was too lovely to be forgotten. Your moralizing on your want of dignity and all that doesn't disturb me. You'll do for your husband, and I love you so much, darling. Be cheerful and happy. Do as well as you can by the boys, but don't worry about them. They will come out sometime. — Love to all.

Affectionately yours,

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 429

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: August 19, 1863

Mrs. Comly returned with her husband a few days ago. I wish Lucy was here also. Foolish business to send away our wives as was done. A very queer man when he gets into a state of mind on any subject!

The hottest of weather for the past three weeks or so. Mother made a visit to Fremont with Laura and Colonel Mitchell.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 429

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, January 6, 1863

Camp Reynolds, Near Gauley Bridge, January 6, 1863.

Dear Mother: — This is a rainy day — the first we have had in a great while. I never saw finer weather than we have had. It has enabled us to finish our log cabins and we are now in most comfortable quarters. It would surprise you to see what tidy and pretty houses the soldiers have built with very little except an axe and the forest to do it with. My house is a double cabin under a roof about sixty feet long by twenty wide with a space between the cabins protected from weather.

I see that the One Hundred and Thirteenth is ordered off, so I suppose Laura is at home again. I shall write to her in reply to her good letter soon. I think not less but more of her since she has made so valuable an addition to the kinship.

I am writing to Dr. Joe to bring Lucy out here, if he thinks well of it. There are three or four officers' wives in this quarter now. . . . .

Affectionately,

Rutherford.

Mrs. Sophia Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 386-7

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard: October 31, 1862

Columbus, October 31, 1862.

Dear Uncle: — Lucy has had a pretty severe attack of diphtheria. For three or four days she was in a good deal of pain and could neither swallow nor talk. Yesterday and today she has been able to sit up, and is in excellent spirits. We expect to return to Cincinnati next week, and in a week or ten days after I shall probably go to the Twenty-third. My arm has improved the last week more than any time before.

You are glad to hear so good an account of Ned! Lucy says you ought to be glad to hear so good an account of her! That she drove him so skillfully, she thinks a feat.

Unless you come down here by Monday next, we shall be gone home. Laura is looked for with her spouse tomorrow.

Sincerely,

R.

S. BlRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 363

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard: Received October 23, 1862

Columbus, October 23, 1862.

Dear Uncle: — Laura married and off yesterday — all sensible and happy. We had a delightful visit to the boys and kin at Pickaway and Ross Counties. Lucy drove young Ned to Chillicothe and back from here. He is a safe horse and Platt expects to send him back to you when he begins to use his colt. My arm mends very slowly. Mother and all here well. I am to be colonel of [the] Twenty-third and to go to western Virginia. Shan't go for seme weeks. Lucy goes home to Cincinnati next week — about the last of the week. My regards to all.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

S. Birchard.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 362

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard: Received October 17, 1862

I know Mr. Mitchell (Colonel Mitchell) well. He is a young lawyer, educated at Kenyon, of good family, entered the war as lieutenant, then adjutant, then captain, and now lieutenant-colonel of [the] One Hundred and Thirteenth. A member of the Episcopal Church, and a capital fellow. He is neither tall nor slim, but good-looking. He is taller than Laura and about as “chunky.”

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 362

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Tuesday, February 4, 1862

Steamboat Dunleith, Ohio River. — A bright cold winter day; a good sail down the Ohio. Banks full. Beautiful river.

Reached home as the clock finished striking 12 midnight. A light burning in front room. Wife, boys, Grandma, all well. “Perfectly splendid.”

_______________

The entries in the Diary for the next few days are very brief. Tuesday, February 11, Hayes went to Columbus to visit his brother-in-law, W. A. Platt, and family; two days later to Delaware where he remained two days with his mother. The week-end he spent “happily at Fremont with Uncle. All the talk is of battles — the late victories at Roanoke Island, Fort Henry, and the pending struggle at Donelson.” Monday, the 17th, returning to Cincinnati, he hears “of the decisive victory at Fort Donelson as we reached Crestline and Galion. Joy and excitement, cannon, flags, crowds of happy people everywhere.” The following days at home in Cincinnati “getting ready to return to his regiment.”

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 198-9

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes: Tuesday, January 7, 1862

Tuesday, January 7, 1862.

Dearest L—: — The enclosed letter to Dr. Joe did not get off yesterday and thinking it likely he may be off, I enclose it with this to you.

Since writing yesterday a deep snow has fallen postponing indefinitely all extensive movements southward. We shall have a thaw after the snow, then floods, bad roads for nobody knows how long, and so forth, which will keep us in our comfortable quarters here for the present at least. Write me one more letter if you can before I come home. I shall not leave for home in less than three weeks. I trust my absence will not continue much longer than that time. Take care of yourself and you will be able to be up with me and about long before I leave. I must visit Columbus, Delaware, and Fremont (unless Uncle happens to be at Cincinnati) while at home, besides doing a great many chores of all sorts. I don't expect you to be able to go with me, but I hope you will be well enough to be with me a good deal while we are in Cincinnati.

I just ran out in the snow to detail four men to run down a suspicious character who is reported as hanging around the hospital and lower part of the village. A queer business this is.

I sent Laura some letters written by lovers, wives, and sisters to Rebels in Floyd's army. The captured mails on either side afford curious reading. They are much like other folks — those Rebel sweethearts, wives, and sisters.

I trust we shall crush out the Rebellion rapidly. The masses South have been greatly imposed on by people who were well informed. I often wish I could see the people of this village when they return to their homes. On the left of me is a pleasant cottage. The soldiers, to increase their quarters, have built on three sides of it the awkardest possible shanty extensions — one side having a prodigious stone and mud chimney, big enough for great logs ten feet in length. On three of the prominent hills of the village considerable earthworks have been built. There are no fences in sight except around the three buildings occupied by leading officers. Such is war. One young lady writing to her lover speaks of a Federal officer she had met, and laments that so nice a gentleman should be in the Union army.

. . . . You must be ever so careful for a good while yet. Good night, dearest. Much love to all and, as about forty affectionate Rebels say, a large portion for yourself.

Affectionately,

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 181-2

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, November 30, 1861

Fayetteville, Camp Union, November 30, 1861.

Dearest: — We are now engaged in getting winter quarters fixed comfortably. There are not houses enough to lodge all the men without too much crowding. We hope soon to have elbow-room. We ease it off a little by being very liberal with furloughs. We allow four men — “men of family preferred” — to go from each company for twenty days. As a consequence, there must be daily some of our men going through Cincinnati. The bearer will bring (probably) besides this letter, the accoutrements which go with Birt's Mississippi rifle, and a couple of gold pieces, one for a present for you and one for Grandma Webb.

We are doing well. Today is bright and warm after a three-days storm of rain and sleet. I had a letter from Laura. You may send my vest; also “Lucile.” All sorts of reading matter finds grabbers, but I think of nothing except any stray Atlantic or Harper's of late date. I do not wish to go home for some weeks, but if necessary, I can now go home at any time. I prefer that every other officer should go before I do. Dr. Joe is now acting as brigade surgeon, Colonel Scammon as brigadier, and I as colonel; Dr. Jim, as temporary surgeon of the Thirtieth.

All the people hereabouts are crowding in to take the oath of allegiance. A narrow-chested, weakly, poverty-stricken, ignorant set. I don't wonder they refuse to meet our hardy fellows on fair terms. Captain Sperry says: “They are too ignorant to have good health.”

Love to “all the boys,” to Mother Webb, and ever so much for your own dear self.

Affectionately,

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 154-5

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Laura Platt, November 29, 1861

Fayetteville, Virginia, November 29, 1861.

Dear Laura: — Thanks for your letter. I hope I may think your health is improved, especially as you insist upon the pair of swollen cheeks. We are to stay here this winter. Our business for the next few weeks is building a couple of forts and getting housed fifteen hundred or two thousand men. We occupy a good brick house, papered and furnished, deserted by its secession proprietor on our approach. Our mess consists of Colonel Scammon, now commanding [the] Third Brigade, Colonel Ewing of [the] Thirtieth, Dr. Joe, and a half dozen other officers.

The village was a fine one — pretty gardens, fruit, flowers, and pleasant homes. All natives gone except three or four families of ladies — two very attractive young ladies among them, who are already turning the heads or exciting the gallantry of such “gay and festive” beaux as the doctor.

We are in no immediate danger here of anything except starvation, which you know is a slow death and gives ample time for reflection. All our supplies come from the head of navigation on the Kanawha over a road remarkable for the beauty and sublimity of its scenery, the depth of its mud, and the dizzy precipices which bound it on either side. On yesterday one of our bread waggons with driver and four horses missed the road four or six inches and landed ("landed" is not so descriptive of the fact as lit) in the top of a tree ninety feet high after a fall of about seventy feet. The miracle is that the driver is here to explained that one of his leaders hawed when he ought to have geed.

We are now encouraging trains of pack mules. They do well among the scenery, but unfortunately part of the route is a Serbonian Bog where armies whole might sink if they haven't, and the poor mules have a time of it. The distance luckily to navigable water is only sixteen to twenty miles. If, however, the water gets low, the distance will increase thirty to forty miles, and if it freezes — why, then we shall all be looking for the next thaw for victuals.

We are to have a telegraph line to the world done tomorrow, and a daily mail subject to the obstacles aforesaid, so we can send you dispatches showing exactly how our starvation progresses from day to day.

On the whole, I rather like the prospect. We are most comfortably housed, and shall no doubt have a pretty jolly winter. There will be a few weeks of busy work getting our forts ready, etc., etc. After that I can no doubt come home and visit you all for a brief season.

So the nice young lieutenant is a Washington. Alas! that so good a name should sink so low.

I am interrupted constantly. Good-bye. Love to all. Can't write often. Send this to Lucy.

Affectionately, your uncle,

Ruddy.

Miss Laura Platt.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 152-3

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Laura Platt, August 4, 1861

Near Weston, Virginia, August 4, 1861.

Dear Laura: — As we ride about this exceedingly pretty country and through this reasonably decent village, I am reminded of young ladies in Ohio by occasionally meeting a damsel wearing a stars-and-stripes apron, or by seeing one who turns up her nose at the said stars, etc.

We are leading camp life again — watching Secessionists, studying geography, sending and receiving scouts and couriers and sich like. Colonel Matthews has gone with the five companies of the right wing forty-four miles further up into the hills. We shall follow him if there are any hostile signs up there, and he will return to us if such sign fail him.

You and Jeanie A— have been of use. The bandages are used in dressing the shocking wound of young Jewett of Zanesville — a lieutenant, handsome, gallant, and intelligent. Just the person you would wish to serve in this way. Dr. Joe hopes he will not be crippled. At first it seemed that he must lose his foot; but your bandages or something else are bringing him up. It will be perhaps months before he can walk.

The court-house here (about like yours) is a hospital for the sick and wounded of all the regiments hereabouts. It would be a glorious thing if some Florence Nightingales would come here. They could be immensely useful, and at the same time live pleasantly in a pretty mountain village, safe as a bug in a rug. Won't you come? It is easy getting here and cheap staying. Too hot under canvas to write much. Love to all.

Your uncle,

R.

Miss Laura Platt,

Columbus.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 56